Converting older Canon AVI to MP4

[zzmiller]

I've made the decision to begin editing the movies I made on a Canon A710 years ago for two reasons. One to consolidate multiple clips into a single video in some cases but also to convert the bloated AVI files into MP4 format. I have some experience with doing this but am just looking for additional advice. Essentially the AVI files are at a data rate of ~14.5 MB/s and 88 KB/s audio. I'm not sure why they are so big as the quality is standard 640x480 but nonetheless a 1 minute video is ~110 MB. I will convert these to MP4 using quicktime which is quite simple but was just wondering if anyone had advice on choosing the output data/audio rate. I know ~7MB/s is near DVD quality but these were shot with a A710 so even if I wanted to put them on a DVD later would it matter if they were 14, 7, or 4 MB/s if I was watching it on HDTV anyway? I want to get the best bang for my buck if it is discernable. My intention is to convert at 4.8 MB/s with audio at 128 and essentially that 110 MB file becomes ~35 MB minus any additional footage I clip out.

I'm thinking of my kids here and would like to have a single video file for an event (when there are multiple videos) with all the dead time removed and at a data rate that would not be destructive. Thanks in advance.

[greymalkin]

you would do best to find a good encoder that allows you to pick a constant quality setting and set it to highest quality. This will create a variable bitrate file that will probably be smaller than the constant bit-rate you second guessed yourself about until you decided on max just in case.

I used to be a constant bitrate guy..always setting my dvd's to 9300kbps..only recently have I realized I've been wasting space!

People have said good things about xvid4psp..it's freeware and can be set to use constant quality.

[hech54]

The A710 is listed as using MJpeg with mono WAV audio.

[zzmiller]

The A710 is listed as using MJpeg with mono WAV audio.

Sorry, I'm not sure what this is means in regards to the question.

greymalkin, that software looks interesting and I appreciate the information. The majority of videos will involve both combining and editing. It looks like that program is very useful for conversion but I am not sure it allows any editing and I don't see a constant quality setting within Quicktime.

[yoda313]

Just remember to always save the original files. Then you can start over should you ever need to with the original quality. Burn them to dvdr and backup on an external harddrive for a safety copy.

[hech54]

The A710 is listed as using MJpeg with mono WAV audio.

Sorry, I'm not sure what this is means in regards to the question.

"AVI" is just a container. The "AVI" files you are referring to from this camera contain video compressed with MJpeg. "AVI" files can contain a large variety of different video and audio codecs. Not all "AVI" files are the same.....FAR from it.